Tea at Trianon: Global Crash in Birth Rate

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, July 31, 2020

Global Crash in Birth Rate

From The BBC:

Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century. And 23 nations - including Spain and Japan - are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. Countries will also age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born. The fertility rate - the average number of children a woman gives birth to - is falling. If the number falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall. In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. Researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 - and their study, published in the Lancet, projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100. (Read more.)

From Big League Politics:

They cite data from the Institute for Family Studies surmising that “declines in first births have been very large and extend all the way up to women in their mid-thirties. Meanwhile, there have not been appreciable increases in first birth rates among women in their late thirties and into their forties. Lost first births at younger years are not being made up in later years. The argument that childless women are going to “catch up” and that the share of women who are childless will not rise in the future is almost certainly wrong.”

Stone and Cox made the point that this news is terrible not just for the economy but also for the fabric of Western society. The West is on the road to mass civilizational suicide because of the birthrate collapse.

“Most of the decline in birthrates has been among younger and unmarried women, while married birthrates have been stable. Meanwhile, marriage rates have fallen sharply, especially for less-educated Americans and minorities. As a result, “family life,” conceived as two committed parents residing with their children, is increasingly an upper-middle-class luxury good,” they explained.

“It is common among Americans in the top half of the economic distribution. But among the poor and working class, we are pairing off less and less, and welcoming new life into our homes less and less,” Stone and Cox added. (Read more.)

From Ave Maria Radio:

A generation has passed since the publication of the boldly pastoral and prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae which upheld the ancient ban on the use of artificial contraception. Perhaps no teaching of the Church causes the worldly to scoff more than our teaching against artificial contraception. The eyes of so many, Catholics among them, roll and the scoffing begins: Unrealistic! Out of touch! Uncompassionate! Silly! You’ve got to be kidding!

The Lord Jesus had an answer to those who ridiculed him in a similar way:

“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: ” ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ‘ But time will prove where wisdom lies.” (Matt 11:16-18)

Indeed, times DOES prove where wisdom lies. Some forty or more years after widespread acceptance of contraception set in how have we done? Perhaps it is best to review some of the “promises” that contraceptive advocates made, then review the prophecies of Paul VI. Then lets review the record, looking at the “fruits” of contraception. (Read more.)

Let's take back our children. From American Thinker:

Black disciples of socialism disguised as civil rights activists have also been allowed to sow their seeds of anti-American hate in public education for decades. In the 1970s, I was a student at the prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art via scholarships. The Black Panthers showed up, angrily demanding a platform on campus to protest. College management humbly complied. As a black student, I never understood what I was supposed to be angry at the college about or how the college was abusing me.

Dad was a civil rights pioneer. He pressured me and my four younger siblings to always vote and join the NAACP. Upon attending my first NAACP meeting, I was stunned. They actually joined in a circle; held hands; and sang, "We Shall Overcome". Their rhetoric sounded as though I had stepped through a time warp back to 1950. Leftist institutions of indoctrination are still selling students, black and white, the absurd lie that America has not progressed racially beyond the 1950s.

I wrote about public elementary schools teaching white kids to hate themselves and feel guilty for being born white — about pre-K students being taught to embrace homosexuality and to consider attempting to change their sex. The children's book I Am Jazz about a boy whose parents insanely began preparing him to pretend to be female at age 3 is read to kindergartners without parental consent and even mandatory in schools' curricula. (Read more.)